Vincenzo Lo Russo (a son of Domenico Lo Russo) is among those arrested during a police operation against the Camorra gang in Naples, Italy

.

(CIRO FUSCO/EPA)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROME — Camorra mobsters
intimidated grocers and supermarkets in Naples into buying bread from
clan-controlled bakeries at inflated prices, Italian prosecutors and police
said Monday following a crackdown that included 24 arrests.

In an operation targeting the Lo
Russo crime clan, police also seized three bakeries allegedly controlled by the
clan and arrested an owner of one of them, authorities said.

The mobsters forced stores to buy
their bakeries' bread, with prices considerably higher than market prices, said
Lt. Col. Giuseppe Furciniti, commander of the organized crime unit in Naples of
the national financial police corps.

Most merchants bought the
Camorra-linked bread, Furciniti said.

Italian cops bust ‘merciless’ mob
boss who hid for 20 years

"Only a few dared not
to," knowing if they spurned the Camorra, they risked seeing their shops
burned or suffer other damage, he said.

With wholesale prices hiked by as
much as 30 euro cents a kilogram, the profits went to clan coffers, authorities
said. Since most of the neighborhood shops sold the Camorra-linked bread,
consumers also saw bread prices rise.

Prosecutor Giovanni Colangelo
said a few merchants told police about the extortion. Eavesdropping devices and
intercepted phone calls helped the probe, investigators said.

Extortion is one mainstay of the
Naples-based syndicate. Besides demanding "protection money," the
Camorra often demands that businesses buy wares from certain suppliers.

Joe Giudice ‘doing fine,’
remaining ‘strong’ in prison

"This time it was bread,
other times it has been buffalo mozzarella," the prized, creamy cheese,
Furciniti said.